One of the most curious features of Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson is that of Dave Wilson's hobby of taking the fingerprints of others in the community. As you know by the end, this odd habit of his--which contributes to his reputation as a "pudd'nhead"--becomes a major plot device for the unraveling of the switched identities of Thomas Driscoll and Valet de Chambre as well as for the murder mystery at the heart of the novel. But as Langston Hughes has remarked in his "Introduction" to the Bantam edition of the novel published in 1962, Twain recognized the utility of fingerprinting as a means of identifying criminals two years before the International Association of Chiefs of Police decided to "study ways and means whereby fingerprinting might supplement or perhaps supplant the Bertillon system of bodily measurements as a means of identifying criminals" (328).

Hughes goes on to argue that Pudd'nhead Wilson's treatment of slaves as neither comic relief, nor happy-go-lucky characters accepting their position, but rather as human beings who alternate between resignation and resistance, marks it as a novel more modern than much of the Southern literature of its time. Nevertheless, Hughes claims, Pudd'nhead Wilson lacks the blatant humor of some of Twain's earlier work, including Huckleberry Finn.

Hughes's "Introduction" (which you can read by clicking the link) inspires questions about how to classify Pudd'nhead Wilson. In other words, how do we identify a novel that is so bound up with questions of identity, but is more modern than most novels--and technologies--of its time, is satirical but not explicitly humorous in its treatment of serious themes, and treats racial and social issues with a sensitivity not seen in other works of its time? For this online discussion, you will form an answer to this question yourself, while also exploring how literary scholars have approached this question as well.

Your post should be a minimum of 500 words and a maximum of 700 words, it should be thoughtful, and it should use a coherent paragraph organization. After you post your discussion, read and reply to two other classmates' posts.

Directions:

First, read Langston Hughes' "Introduction" to Pudd'nhead Wilson and summarize it in a few sentences.

Next, locate another critical source on Pudd'nhead Wilson using the library's literature databases. Reprint in your post what search terms you used, what database you used, and the title and author of the source you found. Summarize the argument and evidence of that source, using "Close Reading Literary Criticism" as a guide.

Then, using at least one of the strategies from "Invention Strategies for Literary Analysis" and/or elements from Culler's chapter "Identity, identification, and the subject," develop an overarching reading of Pudd'nhead Wilson that begins to approach the question of identity in and of the novel, and support it with evidence from the text. (This should form the bulk of your discussion post).

Finally, compare and contrast your own reading with that of Langston Hughes' "Introduction" as well as the source you located in your research.